Free Speech 1 - Oxygen of Freedom
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2016
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Timothy Garton Ash introduces the subject of freedom of speech and why it is more important than ever in today's internet-connected world. Professor Garton Ash sets out the arguments for why we need free speech, including for the sake of diversity, good governance and the search for truth. He argues that as smartphones and the web change our communications, we need a set of principles which govern free speech more than ever as this essential human right comes under attack. Drawing on research behind his book on the subject, he identifies three main threats. The first is what he calls the heckler's veto: if you shout loudly enough you can restrict free speech. The second is the offensiveness veto: if you cry 'I'm offended' you can restrict free speech. The third is the assassin's veto: if you say that, we will kill you. Produced by Nina Robinson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading this podcast from BBC Radio 4 on free speech. |
| 0:05.0 | In five essays, the Oxford academic and author on the subject, Timothy Garten Ash, |
| 0:11.0 | explores why he believes free speech is under attack in today's |
| 0:16.1 | interconnected world. I love free speech. It's the oxygen of freedom, the air that |
| 0:22.4 | enables all other freedoms to breathe. |
| 0:25.0 | That's why I've spent the last 10 years writing a book about it |
| 0:29.0 | and running a website to promote a global online conversation in 13 different languages, |
| 0:35.0 | unthinkable before the internet transformed our possibilities. |
| 0:40.0 | But what exactly makes free speech so vital? It would feel to be free. |
| 0:55.0 | Nina Simone says it's better than I ever could with the warmth and melancholy of that wonderful voice, |
| 1:01.0 | itself a musical embodiment of freedom of expression. |
| 1:05.0 | I could say all the things that I should say, say I'm loud, |
| 1:12.0 | say I'm clear for the whole free speech is essential for self-expression. |
| 1:17.0 | Without it we can't fully be ourselves. |
| 1:21.0 | Without it we can't fully be ourselves. Her words are as profound as they |
| 1:26.2 | are simple. |
| 1:27.2 | I wish you could know what it means to be me? |
| 1:34.0 | Then you'd see and agree that every man should be free. |
| 1:42.0 | Exactly so. should be free. |
| 1:43.0 | Exactly so. |
| 1:44.4 | Free speech is a human right for both the speaker and the listener. |
| 1:48.9 | Unless I can express myself, you can't know what it means to be me and I can't know what it means to be you. |
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